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Grizzlies down Clippers, grab 3-2 series lead

Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Memphis' Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph don't have the athletic leaping ability of their counterparts in Lob City, but the Clippers haven't found the antidote to stopping them over the last three games.

And a road team has finally taken a contest in this series.

Randolph had 10 of his 25 points in the fourth to go with 11 rebounds, while Gasol added 21 points and eight boards in the Grizzlies' 103-93 win over Los Angeles in Game 5 of this Western Conference first-round series.

The duo combined for 43 points and 19 rebounds in Game 3 and went for 48 points and 22 boards in Game 4.

"We won defensively," Gasol said.

The Grizzlies will attempt to close out the series in Memphis on Friday.

Mike Conley tallied 20 points and six assists for the Grizzlies, who committed just seven turnovers against the team that forced the most in the NBA during the regular season.

"We played the way we've been playing the last few games," Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins said.

Chris Paul tied a playoff career high with 35 points to lead Los Angeles.

Clippers forward Blake Griffin exited the tilt midway through the third quarter with a right ankle injury that he hurt in practice Monday. Griffin finished with just four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

"It was an unfortunate thing that happened yesterday. He came down on Lamar's (Odom) foot. Today in the third quarter he was struggling to move. It's unfortunate timing, a freak thing," Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro said of Griffin's injury.

Jamal Crawford finished with 15 points in defeat.

"We can't allow them 33 free throws and we have to control their big men better. They put a lot of pressure on us with their two bigs. We need more production from a lot of guys," Del Negro said.

Gasol picked up his fifth foul with 10:23 remaining and two Matt Barnes free throws whittled the Los Angeles deficit to 75-71, but the Clippers never got any closer.

A bit later, after DeAndre Jordan's tip-in again trimmed the margin to four, Memphis answered as Tony Allen got his tip-in to drop and Randolph's running hook across the paint increased the advantage to 81-73 with 8:26 to go.

Eric Bledsoe split a pair of free throws and Crawford knocked down a jumper on back-to-back touches to get LA within 91-86, but Tayshaun Prince nailed a backbreaking right wing triple to make it 94-86 to all but seal the outcome with 1:29 left.

LA led 28-26 after a quarter of play, but the Grizzlies used an 11-2 run during the latter stages of the second to vault them to a seven-point advantage.

Gasol, who had five points during the surge, had a three-point play before Jerryd Bayless capped it with a 3-pointer for a 49-42 Memphis cushion.

The Grizzlies went into the locker room with a 54-48 spread.

Back-to-back buckets by Paul pulled the Clippers within 54-52 before Memphis answered with 11 unanswered points. Gasol had six points during the swing and Conley concluded it with a three-point play for a 65-52 lead midway through the third.

Memphis entered the final frame with a 73-65 advantage.

Game Notes

Prince netted 15 points for Memphis ... The Grizzlies were 26-of-33 (78.8 percent) from the foul line, while the Clippers went 19-of-25 (76 percent) from the charity stripe.